Electronic device and method for synchronous detection between time division duplex wireless communication cells

ABSTRACT

An electronic device and method for synchronous detection between time division duplex wireless communication cells. The electronic device can access a communication channel of a time division duplex wireless communication system, and includes: an acquisition unit configured to acquire an actual time slot proportion of a target cell and a cell ID and an operator ID of the target cell at a specific moment; and a reporting unit configured to transmit the actual time slot proportion of the target cell and the cell ID and the operator ID thereof to a designee. By this technology, networks of different operators can be detected effectively, and by a comparison with a reference time or a coordinated uplink/downlink time slot proportion, a meaningful comparison result is obtained. Moreover, the measurement or comparison result is provided for a third party, such as a network manager, to confirm, so that the result is more credible.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communications,and in particular to an electronic device and a method for performingsynchronization detection between cells in a time division duplexwireless communication system.

BACKGROUND

With a large-scale development of TDD-LTE (time division duplexlong-term evolution) commercial network, in some countries or regions,there will be cases where multiple operators deploy TDD-LTE networks ina same geographical area, and it can be foreseen that such cases willbecome more prevalent. Currently, there are cases that multipleoperators operate the TDD-LTE network at adjacent channels in thefrequency bands of both 2.6 GHz and 2.3 GHz in China, and no guard bandis reserved between frequency bands owned by the operators.

In a case that multiple operators deploy TDD networks in adjacentfrequency bands in a same geographical area, severe interference will becaused if synchronization and coordination of uplink/downlink time slotallocation are not performed between the operators. For example, if abase station (a terminal) of an operator is in a transmit mode, and abase station (a terminal) of another operator is in a receive mode at asame time instant, a receiver may have a ground noise rising or even beblocked due to out-of-band radiation characteristics of a transmitterand undesirable adjacent channel selectivity of the receiver, therebyaffecting the reception of useful signal by the receiver. In this case,it is necessary to provide a guard band and/or an additional radiofrequency filter and/or other interference cancellation to reduce theinterference.

In addition to providing the guard band and the additional filter toavoid the interference, another method is to negotiate by the multipleoperators for synchronous operation between the TDD systems. That is,base stations of the TDD systems of multiple operators are all in atransmit state or a receive state in a same time instant.

Considering in view of spectrum utilization and an extra renovation costof a device, synchronization between TDD systems is the most effectivescheme of deploying the TDD systems in a same geographical area inadjacent frequency bands by multiple operators. Hence, an operable andeffective solution of synchronization between multiple operators iscrucial for ensuring a stable and reliable operation of TD-LTE systems.

Regarding the synchronization between TDD systems of multiple operators,various operators have a common point that, it is desirable to have areliable and credible scheme for finding and proving a base station or acell which is out of step. It is proposed to find and prove theout-of-step base station with a scheme of detecting an interferencesource on the base-station side and analyzing an interference model.However, the scheme can only prove that there is no perfectsynchronization between base stations, but has great difficulties inproving which base station is out of step. Currently, the operators andmanufacturers generally believe that a test made by a third party have ahigher credibility.

SUMMARY

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic devicecapable of accessing a communication channel of a time division duplexwireless communication system. The electronic device includes: anacquiring unit configured to acquire, at a specific time, an actual timeslot allocation of a target cell, as well as a cell ID (identifier) andan operator ID of the target cell; and a reporting unit configured totransmit the actual time slot allocation of the target cell as well asthe cell ID and the operator ID of the target cell to a designatedparty.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic devicefor a time division duplex wireless communication system. The electronicdevice includes: a command unit configured to notify a specific terminaldevice of a target cell serving as a target of synchronizationdetection, as well as a detection period or a maximum detection timeinterval for the synchronization detection; and a receiving unitconfigured to receive an actual time slot allocation of the target cellas well as a cell ID and an operator ID of the target cell reported bythe specific terminal device.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method ofdetecting synchronization between cells in a time division duplexwireless communication system. The method includes: acquiring, at aspecific time, an actual time slot allocation of a target cell, as wellas a cell ID and an operator ID of the target cell; and transmitting theactual time slot allocation of the target cell as well as the cell IDand the operator ID of the target ID to a designated party.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method ofdetecting synchronization between cells in a time division duplexwireless communication system. The method includes: notifying a specificterminal device of a target cell serving as a target of synchronizationdetection, as well as a detection period or a maximum detection timeinterval of the synchronization detection; and receiving an actualallocation of the target cell as well as a cell ID and an operator ID ofthe target cell reported by the specific terminal device.

With the synchronization detection scheme according to the presentdisclosure, networks of different operators can be detected effectivelyby performing the measurement on the terminal side, and a meaningfulcomparison result can be obtained by performing a comparison with areference time or a coordinated uplink/downlink time slot allocation.Moreover, the scheme according to the present disclosure can beimplemented with existing hardware capability of a user withoutrequiring special upgrade of hardware, and therefore has industrialpractical applicability.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

By referring to the following description of embodiments of the presentdisclosure in conjunction with the drawings, the above and otherobjects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will be moreeasily understood. In the drawings, a same or corresponding technicalfeature or component is represented by a same or corresponding referencenumeral.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional structure of a terminaldetection device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram exemplifying a functional structure of aterminal detection device according to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart exemplifying a method for detectingsynchronization between TDD cells performed by a terminal detectiondevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart exemplifying a method for detectingsynchronization between TDD cells performed by a terminal detectiondevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram exemplifying a functional structure of anelectronic device for performing synchronization detection on a networkside according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram exemplifying a functional structure of anelectronic device for performing synchronization detection on a networkside according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart exemplifying a method for detectingsynchronization between cells in TDD communication systems according toan embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a timing diagram exemplifying a specific embodiment ofperforming TDD synchronization detection by using the synchronizationdetection technology according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an exemplary structure of a computercapable of implementing the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

For TDD synchronization between operators, it is required that uplinktransmission and downlink transmission do not coexist between any twocells of different operators in a same geographical area. It means thatboth of the following two conditions must be met: 1. TDD frame starttimes are synchronous; 2. TDD uplink/downlink time slot allocations aresynchronous. In other words, it can be determined that TDD wirelesscommunication is out of step between various operators if it is detectedthat any one of the above two conditions is not met.

In the synchronization detection scheme according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure, a frame start time and/or uplink/downlink time slotallocation of a target cell serving as a target of synchronizationdetection are measured by an electronic device on a terminal side, andthe measured frame start time and/or uplink/downlink time slotallocation are provided to a designed party (for example, a base stationof an operator or a network administrator serving as a third party), soas to detect the occurrence of out-of-step in the TDD wirelesscommunication system.

The uplink/downlink time slot allocation indicates a transmissiondirection (uplink/downlink) of each sub-frame in a TDD frame (a radioframe, radio frame).

In the TDD-LTE wireless communication system, each radio frame isconstituted by two half-frames each having a length of 5 ms. Each of thehalf-frames includes 8 regular time slots each having a length of 0.5ms, and three special time slots, i.e., a DwPTS (a downlink pilot timeslot), a GP (a main guard time slot) and an UpPTS (an uplink pilot timeslot). Lengths of the DwPTS and the UpPTS are configurable.

Uplink/downlink sub-frame allocations in TDD-LTE are shown in Table 1.“D” represents that the sub-frame is used for downlink transmission, “U”represents that the sub-frame is used for uplink transmission, and “S”is a special sub-frame constituted by the DwPTS, GP and UpPTS.

TABLE 1 Uplink/downlink Sub-frame number allocation 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90 D S U U U D S U U U 1 D S U U D D S U U D 2 D S U D D D S U D D 3 D SU U U D D D D D 4 D S U U D D D D D D 5 D S U D D D D D D D 6 D S U U UD S U U D

For example, in a case that the time slot allocations of line 1 and line2 in Table 1 coexist, severe interference would occur in datatransmission between the cells since uplink/downlink configurations areinconsistent at time slot 3 and time slot 8.

To access communication channels (communication band) of cells ofdifferent operators, it is required that an electronic device formeasurement on the terminal side (hereinafter abbreviated as a “terminaldevice” or “terminal detection device”) has an antenna module forscanning, receiving and transmitting on a concerned wireless frequencyband. In addition, it is required that the terminal device can receive atime signal for reference, for example, a GPS clock signal or a clocksignal provided by a network administrator. In addition, a dedicatedsynchronization detection device may also be provided when the networkis deployed. For example, the dedicated synchronization detection deviceis dedicated to perform synchronization detection according to thepresent disclosure, i.e., only receive and transmit a signal related tothe synchronization detection.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional structure of a terminaldetection device 100 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The terminal detection device 100 includes an acquiring unit101 and a reporting unit 102. The acquiring unit 101 is configured toacquire, at a specific time, an actual time slot allocation of a targetcell, as well as a cell ID and an operator ID of the target cell. Forexample, the acquiring unit 101 may acquire the actual uplink/downlinktime slot allocation of the target cell as well as the cell ID and theoperator ID of the target cell by monitoring system information of thetarget cell. For example, a “system information block type 1”(SystemInformationBlockType1) message sent by the target cell ismonitored, a TDD-config (TDD-configuration) information element (IE)included in the massage is obtained, and the uplink time slot allocationof the target cell is determined. In addition, for example, the operatorID may be determined based on PLMN-Identity (public land mobilenetwork-identity) contained in the system information.

In a case that the synchronization detection of TDD systems is performedby a dedicated detection device, the dedicated detection device mayselect a measurement timing adaptively based on a maximum detection timeinterval which is preset in advance or configured on the network side.The measurement timing is the timing (an instance of the “specifictiming”) at which the acquiring unit 101 acquires the actual time slotallocation of the target cell. Here, the “maximum detection timeinterval” refers to a maximum time interval between two successivemeasurements made on a same cell. The acquiring unit 101 may eitherobtains the actual time slot allocation periodically with a fixed cyclelength less than the maximum detection time interval, or adjust the timeinterval of the obtaining operation dynamically based on a change inchannel quality of the communication network as long as the timeinterval is less than the maximum time interval.

A target measurement cell of the dedicated synchronization detectiondevice may be designated on the network side by using signaling. Thesignaling for designating the target cell may be received by theacquiring unit 101.

In a case that the terminal detection device is implemented by a regularuser equipment such as a cell phone, the acquiring unit 101 (forexample, an antenna module of the cell phone) may receive, in additionto the designation of the target measurement cell from the network side,a specific synchronization interval configured on the network side. Thesynchronization detection device stops regular communication operationduring the configured specific synchronization interval, and monitorsthe target cell to perform the synchronization detection operation. Inaddition, during the specific synchronization interval, a serving basestation of the terminal also stops regular communication with theterminal to prevent from loss of any regular communication informationduring the time when the terminal serves as the synchronizationdetection device.

In a case that the terminal detection device is implemented with theregular user equipment, configuration may be performed on the networkside according to actual demands to activate a synchronization detectionfunction of the terminal device to start the synchronization detectionoperation. For example, a terminal device in a cell may be configured bythe network side when strong interference in the cell is detected, toactivate the synchronization detection operation. Apparently, theterminal may also be configured in advance when the terminal enters thecell, and then the synchronization detection operation is activated whenstrong interference occurs.

The reporting unit 102 of the terminal device 100 is configured totransmit the actual time slot allocation of the target cell as well asthe cell ID and the operator ID of the target cell to a designated partysuch as a serving base station of the terminal device or a networkadministrator approved by the operator.

In a different embodiment, the reporting unit 102 may be configured totransmit the actual time slot allocation of all the target cells as wellas the cell IDs and the operator IDs of the target cells obtained by theacquiring unit 101 to the designated party, or may be configured toreport only the actual time slot allocation of the target cell proved tobe out of step as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of the targetcell to the designated party. In addition, in a different embodiment,the reporting unit 102 may have different timing to report to thedesignated party. For example, the reporting unit 102 may be configuredto report no matter whether out-of-step is detected or not, or may beconfigured to report only when out-of-step is detected. For example, thereporting unit 102 may be configured to report the actual time slotallocation as well as cell IDs and operator IDs of all the target cellsonly when out-of-step is detected. Detailed descriptions will be givenin following embodiments.

In a case that the terminal detection device 100 is the dedicatedsynchronization detection device, the reporting device 102 can report tothe designated party by using RRC connection request signaling of aradio resource control (RRC) connection request initiated by theterminal detection device 100.

In a case that the terminal detection device 100 is a regular userequipment such as a cell phone, the reporting unit 102 not only canreport to the designated party by using the RRC connection requestsignaling, but also can report by using other RRC signaling, includingbut not limited to an RRC measurement result report or a UE variablereport.

In an embodiment, the terminal detection device 100 acquires the actualtime slot allocation of the target cell, then directly provides theacquired actual time slot allocation to the designated party along withidentification information on the corresponding target cell. Thedesignated party compares the actual time slot allocation with apredetermined target time slot allocation to determine whether anout-of-step occurs.

In another embodiment, the determination of whether an out-of-stepoccurs may also be made on the terminal side, and then the determinationresult is transmitted to the designated party. FIG. 2 is a block diagramexemplifying a functional structure of a terminal detection device 200according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Thesynchronization detection device 200 includes an acquiring unit 201, areporting unit 202 and a comparing unit 203.

In addition to acquiring, at a specific time (for example, a timeinstant when reaching a detection timing or a time instant whensynchronization detection function is activated), the actual time slotallocation of the target cell as well as the cell ID and the operator IDof the corresponding target cell, the acquiring unit 201 is furtherconfigured to acquire a target time slot allocation of the target cell.The target time slot allocation may be acquired at any time. Forexample, for a dedicated synchronization detection device, a target cellto be detected and a target time slot allocation of the target cell maybe set when the network is deployed. Alternatively, the target time slotallocation of the network may be readjusted with changes in parameterssuch as network throughput, network quality, and the readjusted targettime slot allocation is notified to the dedicated synchronizationdetection device. For a regular user equipment such as a cell phone, atarget cell to be detected and a target time slot allocation of thetarget cell may be configured when the user equipment enters the networkor a distance from a serving base station of the user equipment to theuser equipment is reduced to a predetermined value. Optionally, the userequipment may be configured and activated when strong interferenceoccurs and the user equipment is to be used for synchronizationdetection. In other words, the acquiring unit 201 of the synchronizationdetection device 200 may obtain the target time slot allocation of thetarget cell in different scenarios depending on different designs. In anexample, the regular user equipment takes a time slot allocationoperated in a serving cell of the user equipment as the target time slotallocation of the target cell, without acquiring the target time slotallocation of the target cell specially.

The comparing unit 203 may be configured to compare the actual time slotallocation of the target cell with the target time slot allocation.Inconsistency of time slot allocation may be, for example, as shown inthe above Table 1, where the actual time slot allocation and the targettime slot allocation have inconsistent uplink/downlink transmissiondirections at a certain corresponding time slot. In a case that a targettime slot allocation is configured to be a time slot allocation set in anetwork, for example, the inconsistency of time slot allocation refersto that the actual time slot allocation does not belong to the time slotallocation set. A candidate time slot allocation set of a network may beconfigured as the target time slot allocation in a case that the networkemploys a dynamic TDD uplink/downlink time slot allocation which changesamong predetermined several time slot allocations.

The reporting unit 202 may be configured to transmit at least the actualtime slot allocation inconsistent with the target time slot allocationas well as the cell ID and the operator ID of the corresponding targetcell to the designated party, thereby the designated party can notify anout-of-step cell of the occurrence of out-of-step based on the receiveddetection result, so that the out-of-step cell can adjust its time slotallocation of uplink/downlink. As described above, the reporting unit202 may report by using RRC connection request signaling. A regular userterminal such as a cell phone may further report by using a RRCsignaling other than the RRC connection request signaling.

In the above embodiment, synchronization detection is performed onlywith respect to the uplink/downlink time slot allocation. Sinceout-of-step of cell may also be caused by inconsistency of start time ofradio frames between cells of different operators, in anotherembodiment, start time of a radio frame may also be detected.

For example, no matter in an embodiment where the terminal detectiondevice only acquires and forwards the time slot allocation, or in anembodiment where the terminal detection device compares the actual timeslot allocation with the target time slot allocation, the terminaldetection device may detect the start time of radio frame additionally.

In addition, similar to processing on the uplink/downlink time slotallocation, the terminal detection device may detect and forward theactual start time of radio frame of a cell to a designated party, or mayobtain and compare the actual start time of radio frame with a reference(desired) start time of radio frame, and report to the designated partybased on the comparison result.

Next, the terminal detection device 200 as shown in FIG. 2 is describedas an example. The acquiring unit 201 may be configured to acquire anactual frame start time of a target cell at a specific time same as thatof obtaining the actual time slot allocation. For example, the acquiringunit 201 may acquire the actual frame start time by monitoring adownlink synchronization signal of the target cell. In addition, theacquiring unit 201 may further acquire, from a reference time source onthe network side, a reference time as a time reference.

The comparing unit 203 may further be configured to calculate adifference between the actual frame start time of the target cell and adesired frame start time based on the reference time.

The reporting unit 202 may be configured to transmit at least thedifference having an absolute value greater than a predeterminedthreshold, as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of thecorresponding target cell, to the designated party, so as to notify thedesignated party to take corresponding actions. Optionally, thereporting unit 202 may also be configured to transmit all thedifferences calculated by the comparing unit 203 and identificationinformation on the corresponding cell to the designated party so as toperform further synchronization determination by the designated party.If the absolute value of the calculated difference is greater than thepredetermined threshold, it is considered that out-of-step of a cell isdetected in a communication system, and the out-of-step cell may befound based on the identification information corresponding to thedifference. The predetermined threshold for the absolute value of thedifference may be set based on specific conditions. For example but notlimited to, based on a synchronization indicator between base stationswhich is required by the 3GPP, the threshold may be set to be 3microseconds in a case that the cell has a small radius (for example, aradius less than 3 km); or the threshold may be set to be 10microseconds in a case that the cell has a large radius (for example, aradius greater than 3 km).

In addition and optionally, the comparison between the actual framestart time and the reference frame start time may not be performed inthe terminal detection device. Instead, the reporting unit directlyforwards the actual frame start time and the identification informationacquired by the acquiring unit to the designated party. The designatedparty performs further comparison and determination.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart exemplifying a method for detectingsynchronization between cells performed by a terminal detection deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In step S301, anactual time slot allocation of a target cell as well as a cell ID and anoperator ID of the target cell are acquired at a specific time. Asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, for a dedicatedterminal detection terminal, the specific time is the detection timingset based on a pre-configured maximum time interval between two tests ona same cell, for example; for a regular user equipment having asynchronization detection function, the specific time is asynchronization detection period and a synchronization detectioninterval (time for monitoring the target cell) configured on the networkside, for example.

Configuration information such as a synchronization detection interval,designation information on a target cell, identification informationsuch as a cell ID and an operator ID, and configuration parameterreported by a synchronization measurement result such as a reportingcriterion and a reporting format, may all be received by the terminaldetection device by receiving a dedicated signaling, e.g., a “radioresource control connection reconfiguration” message(RRCConnectionReconfiguration), transmitted from the serving cell. Thesynchronization detection device may obtain, for example, a “systeminformation block type 1” (SystemInformationBlockType1) from systeminformation broadcasted on a broadcast control channel (BCCH), and readTDD-config IE (TDD configuration element) from the “system informationblock type 1”. By analyzing sub-frame allocation information(sub-frameAssignment) in the TDD-config IE, the actual time slotallocation of the target cell may be obtained based on which one of sa0,sa1, sa2, sa3, sa4, sa5 and sa6 the value of the sub-frameAssignment is(wherein sa0 indicates allocation 0, sa1 indicates allocation 1, and soon).

In step S302, the actual time slot allocation as well as the cell ID andthe operator ID of the target cell are transmitted to the designatedparty. That is, the terminal detection device reports a measurementresult after performing a synchronization measurement. The measurementresult may include actual measurement results of all the target cells orthe out-of-step cells as well as the cell IDs and the operator IDs ofthe corresponding target cells. Based on the reporting configuration,the measurement result may further include other information related tothe synchronization measurement.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart exemplifying a method for detectingsynchronization between TDD cells performed by a terminal detectiondevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In stepS401, a target time slot allocation of the target cell is acquired. Forexample, a dedicated synchronization detection device may acquire thetarget time slot allocation of the target cell configured by the networkside during network initialization. For example, a regular userequipment such as a cell phone may acquire, along with the designationof the target cell, the target time slot allocation of the target cellconfigured by the network side when entering the cell or when stronginterference occurs in the communication network.

In step S402, at a specific time such as a synchronization detectioninterval, for example, the actual time slot allocation of the targetcell as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of the correspondingtarget cell are acquired by monitoring system information on the networkside.

In step S403, the actual time slot allocation of the target cell iscompared with the target time slot allocation. For example, the numberof the actual time slot allocation may be learned from theabove-described TDD-config IE, and compared with the number of thetarget time slot allocation.

In step S404, at least the actual time slot allocation inconsistent withthe target time slot allocation as well as the cell ID and the operatorID of the corresponding target cell are transmitted (reported) to thedesignated party. A detection result may be transmitted by using RRCconnection request signaling. For the regular user equipment, thedetection result may also be transmitted by using other RRC signaling.In addition, the detection result may be transmitted to the designatedparty once a round of detection is finished, or may be transmitted tothe designated party only in a case that out-of-step is detected.

Details of specific operations have been described with reference toFIG. 1 and FIG. 2, and hence operations in each step will not bedescribed in detail here.

Although flowcharts of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 only exemplify a method fordetecting and verifying synchronization between cells based on a timeslot allocation, it can be understood that an embodiment that detectionis performed only based on an a frame start time and an embodiment thatdetection and verification are performed based on both the time slotallocation and the frame start time are similar to the method. Adetailed description is omitted here since the embodiments have beendescribed with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram exemplifying a functional structure of anelectronic device 500 for performing synchronization detection on anetwork side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Asynchronization detection device on the network side and asynchronization detection device on the terminal side may be usedtogether for performing complete synchronization detection. Thesynchronization detection device 500 includes a command unit 501 and areceiving unit 502.

The command unit 501 is configured to notify a terminal side detectiondevice of a target cell serving as a target of synchronizationdetection. For example, information for designating the target cellincludes a cell ID of the target cell, an operator ID and an operationband of the cell. In addition, the command unit 501 is configured tonotify the terminal side detection device of a desired detection periodand a synchronization detection interval for performing synchronizationdetection by the terminal side detection device, or of a maximumdetection time interval between two synchronization detections. For theterminal side detection device such as a cell phone, the synchronizationdetection interval means that: during the interval, the terminaldetection device stops normal communication and monitors the target cellon which the synchronization detection is to be performed. A servingbase station of the terminal detection device stops transmitting regularcommunication data to the terminal detection device during thesynchronization detection interval so as to prevent losing data.

The command unit 501 may configure the terminal detection device byusing, for example, dedicated signaling in a case that thesynchronization detection device 500 is implemented as a base station.For example, the dedicated signaling is an RRC connectionreconfiguration (ConnectionReconfiguration) message. TheConnectionReconfiguration message may include synchronizationmeasurement configuration information such as a synchronizationmeasurement configuration information element (sync measurement configinformation element). Specifically, the synchronization measurementconfiguration information may include a target measurement object (syncmeasurement objects) for indicating a synchronization measurement targetcell. Optionally, the synchronization measurement configurationinformation may include a synchronization measurement ID (syncmeasurement identities) for associating the synchronization measurementobject with the reported synchronization measurement result, asynchronization measurement interval and a configuration parameter (forexample, a reporting criteria and a reporting format) relating toreporting of the synchronization measurement result and the like.

The receiving unit 502 is configured to receive an actual time slotallocation of the target cell as well as a cell ID and an operator ID ofthe target cell reported by the terminal detection device. As explainedabove in introducing the terminal detection device, the actualallocation and the identification information on the corresponding cellmay be reported by the terminal detection device by using RRC connectionsignaling or other RRC signaling. Hence, the receiving unit 502 mayreceive by detecting the RRC connection request signaling or other RRCrequest signaling (for example, measurement result signaling). Thereceived actual allocation and other information may be information onall the synchronization detection target cells in the geographical area,or may be information on an out-of-step target cell only.

The command unit 501 may further notify the terminal detection device ofa target time slot allocation of the target cell in a case that thedetermination of whether an out-of-step occurs is made on the terminalside, for example, the terminal detection device compares the actualtime slot allocation with the target time slot allocation. The commandunit 501 may make the notification at different timing in differentscenarios. For example, a regular user equipment such as a cell phonemay be configured when the user equipment enters a serving cell by, forexample, being notified of a synchronization detection target cell and atarget time slot allocation; or may be configured while the terminaldetection device is activated for detection when channel quality of thecommunication network becomes poor such that interference exceeds acertain threshold.

In a case that a start time of radio frame is considered insynchronization detection, that is, the synchronization detection deviceon the terminal side also measures an actual frame start time of thetarget cell, the receiving unit 502 of the synchronization detectiondevice 500 may further be configured to receive the actual frame starttime of the target cell as well as the cell ID and the operator ID ofthe corresponding target cell reported by the synchronization detectiondevice on the terminal side.

In addition, in a case that a comparison between the actual frame starttime and a desired frame start time is made on the terminal side, thecommand unit 502 of the synchronization detection device 500 may furtherbe configured to notify the terminal detection device of a time sourceserving as a reference. In a case that the terminal detection devicecalculates and reports a difference between the actual frame start timeof the target cell and a desired frame start time based on the referencetime, the receiving unit 501 of the synchronization detection device 500may be configured to receive the difference between the actual framestart time of the target cell and the desired frame start time based onthe time source as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of thecorresponding target cell, reported by the terminal side, by detectingRRC connection request signaling or other RRC signaling (such asmeasurement result signaling).

FIG. 6 is a block diagram exemplifying a functional structure of asynchronization detection device 600 on a network side according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. The synchronization detectiondevice 600 includes a command unit 601, a receiving unit 602, adetermining unit 603 and a control unit 604. Structures and functions ofthe command unit 601 and the receiving unit 602 are the same asstructures and functions of the command unit 501 and the receiving unit502 described with reference to FIG. 5, the repeated description ofwhich is omitted here.

The determining unit 603 may be configured to determine, based oncontent received by the receiving unit 602, whether the target cell isout of step. For example, the determining unit 603 may determine thatthe corresponding target cell is well synchronized based on a detectionresult that the actual time slot allocation of the target is consistentwith the target time slot allocation, which is received by the receivingunit 602. For example, in a case that only the actual time slotallocation of the target cell is received by the receiving unit 602, thedetermining unit 603 may compare an actual time slot allocation with aknown target time slot allocation and determines whether an out-of-stepoccurs based on the comparison result. For example, in a case that thereceiving unit 602 receives a result that the difference between theactual frame start time of the target cell and the desired frame starttime is greater than the predetermined threshold, the determining unit603 may determine that the corresponding target cell is out of stepbased on the result. For example, in a case that the differences betweenthe actual frame start times of all the target cells and the desiredframe start time are received by the receiving unit 602, the determiningunit 603 may compare all the obtained differences with the predeterminedthreshold to determine whether an out-of-step occurs.

In response to a determination that an out-of-step occurs, the controlunit 604 may take control measures correspondingly, such as notifying anetwork administrator.

In some embodiments, the synchronization detection device 600 isimplemented as a base station, and the target cell on whichsynchronization detection is performed by the terminal detection devicealso includes a cell of the synchronization detection device 600. Inthis scenario, the control unit 604 of the synchronization detectiondevice 600 may be configured to: perform control to readjust timesynchronization of itself when it is determined that the cell itself isout of step; perform control to notify the designated party such as thenetwork administrator when it is determined that a cell other thanitself is out of step.

To avoid possible inaccuracy of measurement due to transmission delay, adistance, from either the dedicated terminal detection device or theregular user equipment capable of synchronization detection such as acell phone to the base station of the detected target cell, at the timeof performing the synchronization detection of frame start time shouldbe less than a predetermined distance. For example, in a case that asynchronization indicator between base stations requires that adifference of start time of radio frame is less than or equal to 3micrometers (3*10⁻⁶ m), the predetermined distance may be calculated as:3*10⁸ (light velocity)*3*10⁻⁶(synchronizationindicator)*10⁻¹(measurement error tolerance)=90 m.

That is, in the procedure of network deployment, the dedicated terminaldetection device should be arranged at a distance less than 90 m fromthe base station of the target cell.

If the terminal detection device is implemented as a regular userequipment, the command unit of the synchronization detection device 500(or a synchronization detection device 600) on the network side whichis, for example, implemented as a base station, may be configured tomeasure or estimate a distance from a candidate terminal device to thebase station of the present cell based on an advanced amount of uplinktransmission time of the candidate terminal device and a path loss ofthe cell. In some cases, in a same geographical area, base stations ofdifferent operators are arranged at a same tower or arranged closely. Insuch cases, the calculated or estimated distance from the cell phone toa serving base station is regarded as a distance from the cell phone toa base station of each target cell, thereby determining a terminaldevice to be configured for performing synchronization detection. In acase that base stations of different operators are not arranged closely,the present cell may obtain a position of the base station of the targetcell based on pre-stored network deployment information, the cell mayfurther screen and obtain a terminal device at a distance from thetarget cell less than the predetermined distance based on signal arrivalangle information or GPS location information of the candidate terminaldevice. Then, the command unit may select and activate the candidateterminal device at a distance less than or equal to the predetermineddistance threshold such as 90 m as the terminal detection device toperform the synchronization detection on the target cell.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart exemplifying a method for detectingsynchronization between cells in a TDD communication system according toan embodiment of the present disclosure. In step S701, a terminaldetection device is notified of a target cell serving as a target cellof synchronization detection, as well as a detection period or a maximumdetection time interval of the synchronization detection. In step S702,an actual time slot allocation of the target cell as well as a cell IDand an operator ID of the target cell reported by the specific terminaldevice are received. The method will not be described in detail sincethe method has been specifically explained with reference to FIG. 5 andFIG. 6 in the above.

Next, a specific embodiment is described with reference to FIG. 8. FIG.8 is a timing diagram exemplifying a specific embodiment of performingTDD synchronization detection by using synchronization detectiontechnology according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The “cell phone” is an instance of a regular user terminal having anadditional synchronization detection capability. The “serving basestation” refers to a base station of a cell serving the cell phone,which is an instance of the network side synchronization detectiondevice coordinating with the terminal detection device in the embodimentin FIG. 8. The “target cell” is an instance of the cell serving as a thesynchronization detection target, which certainly may include andrepresent a current serving base station of a cell phone acceptingsynchronization detection in FIG. 8. The “network administrator” is aninstance of the designated party and the third party.

At time T1, the serving base station performs regular communication withthe cell phone.

At time T2, the serving base station calculates a distance from the cellphone to the serving base station based on the an advanced amount ofuplink transmission time or a path loss, or estimates a position of thecell phone based on an arrival angle of a cell phone signal. Thecalculated or estimated distance from the cell phone to the serving basestation may be regarded as a distance from the cell phone to the basestation of each target cell since in a same geographical area, basestations of different operators are generally arranged at a same toweror arranged closely.

At time T3, a cell phone is selected and a synchronization detectionfunction of the cell phone is activated in a case that the serving basestation determines that the distance from the cell phone to the targetcell is less than the predetermined threshold. Specifically, contentsuch as the target cell, a target time slot allocation, a reference timesource, a synchronization detection interval, a synchronizationdetection result reporting parameter may be allocated to the cell phone,and synchronization detection is started to be performed by the cellphone.

At time T4, the cell phone monitors system information and/or a downlinksynchronization signal of the target cell (the target cell may be theserving base station) during a synchronization detection interval, so asto obtain an actual time slot allocation and/or an actual frame starttime of the target cell.

At time T5, the cell phone may compare the target time slot allocationwith the actual time slot allocation, and compare the actual frame starttime with the desired frame start time to determine whether anout-of-step occurs. Of course, instead of being performed on the cellphone side, the comparison of the information may also be performed inthe serving base station.

At time T6, the cell phone determines the result, or only transmitsinformation obtained from the target cell to the serving base station.

At time T7, the serving base station determines a condition ofout-of-step based on content reported by the cell phone. Moreover, theserving base station may adjust its own time synchronization in a casethat the serving base station itself is out of step.

At time T8, the base station may report the synchronization detectionresult to the network administrator so as to coordinate between thedifferent operators by the network administrator.

In the embodiment as shown in FIG. 8, the cell phone and the basestation are taken as instances of the electronic device according to thepresent disclosure. Alternatively, the electronic device according tothe present disclosure may also be implemented as an integrated circuitchip which can be embedded in the cell phone, the dedicated device orthe base station. For example, the electronic device according to thepresent disclosure may include a micro-processor, such as a DSP (digitalsignal processor), integrated with the above detection function orconfiguration function.

The synchronization detection technology according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure is applicable to a time division duplex (TDD)network, such as a TD-LTE network, and a TD-SCDMA network.

The present disclosure is described by referring to flowcharts and/orblock diagrams of the method and the device according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure in the above. It should be noted that, for thepurpose of clarity, indication and description of components andprocessing irrelevant to the present disclosure and known by thoseskilled in the art are omitted in the drawings and the explanation. Eachblock of the flowchart and/or the block diagram and combinations ofblocks in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams can be implemented withcomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, a specialpurpose computer or other programmable data processing apparatus,thereby producing such machine that, by executing the instructions bythe computer or the other programmable data processing apparatus, anapparatus for achieving functions/operations specified in theflowchart/blocks of block diagrams is generated.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable medium which can command a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to operate in a particularmanner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable mediumgenerate manufactured articles including instruction means forimplementing functions/operations specified in blocks of the flowchartsand/or block diagrams.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus, so that a series ofoperational steps are executed on the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus so as to produce a process implemented by thecomputer, thereby instructions executed on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus provide a process of implementingfunctions/operations specified in blocks in the flowcharts and/or blockdiagrams.

It should be appreciated that, the flowcharts and block diagrams in thedrawings illustrate architectures, functions and operations which may beimplemented by the system the method and computer program productaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In thisregard, each block in the flowcharts or the block diagrams may representa module, a program segment or a part of the code, the module, theprogram segment or the part of the code contains one or more executableinstructions for implementing the specified logic functions. It shouldalso be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functionsnoted in the blocks may also be implemented in an order different fromthat illustrated in the drawings. For example, two consecutive blocksmay be actually executed substantially in parallel, or they may also beperformed in a reverse order, depending on the involved functionality.It should also be noted that, each block in the block diagrams and/orflowchart block as well as combinations of the blocks in the blockdiagrams and/or the flowcharts, may be implemented by a dedicated systembased on hardware for executing specified functions or operations, ormay be implemented by combinations of a dedicated hardware and computerinstructions.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an exemplary structure of a computercapable of implementing the present disclosure. In FIG. 9, a centralprocessing unit (CPU) 901 performs various processing according to theprogram stored in a read only memory (ROM) 902 or the program loadedfrom the storage section 908 to a random access memory (RAM) 903. In theRAM 903, the data required by CPU 901 to execute various processing isalso stored as necessary.

CPU 901, ROM 902 and RAM 903 are connected to each other via a bus 904.Input/output interface 905 is also connected to the bus 904.

The following components are connected to the input/output interface905: an input section 906, including a keyboard, a mouse, etc.; anoutput section 907, including a display, such as a cathode ray tube(CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), etc., and a speaker, etc.; astorage section 908 including a hard disk, etc.; and a communicationsection 909, including a network interface card such as a LAN card, amodem, etc. The communication section 909 performs a communicationprocess via a network, such as the Internet.

A drive 910 may also be connected to the input/output interface 905 asneeded. A removable medium 911 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk,a magneto-optical disk, or a semiconductor memory, is mounted on thedrive 910 as needed, such that a computer program read out therefrom isinstalled into the storage section 908 as needed.

In the case of implementing the above-described series of processing bysoftware, the program constituting the software is installed via thenetwork such as the Internet or a storage medium such as the removablemedia 911.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, such storagemedium is not limited to the removable media 911 shown in FIG. 9 inwhich the program is stored and distributed separately from theapparatus to provide program to the user. The examples of the removablemedia 911 include a magnetic disk, an optical disk (including compactdisc read-only memory (CD-ROM) and a digital versatile disk (DVD)), amagneto-optical disk (including a mini disc (MD)) and a semiconductormemory. Alternatively, the storage medium may be a ROM 902, a hard diskcontained in the storage section 908 and so on, in which the program isstored, and is distributed to users together with the apparatuscontaining them.

It should be understood that, the terminology used herein is only forpurpose of describing particular embodiments but not intended to limitthe present disclosure. As used herein, “a” and “the” in a singular formare intended to include the plural forms unless the context clearlyindicates otherwise. Also, “contain” used in this specificationspecifies the presence of the stated features, entireties, steps,operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, entireties, steps,operations, elements and/or components, and/or a combination thereof.

The present disclosure is described by referring to particularembodiments in the foregoing specification. However, those skilled inthe art understand that various modifications and changes can be madewithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined inthe claims.

The technology according to the present disclosure may further beimplemented by the following embodiment.

1. An electronic device capable of accessing a communication channel ofa time division duplex wireless communication system, including:

an acquiring unit configured to acquire, at a specific time, an actualtime slot allocation of a target cell, as well as a cell ID and anoperator ID of the target cell; and

a reporting unit configured to transmit the actual time slot allocationof the target cell as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of thetarget cell to a designated party.

2. The electronic device according to embodiment 1, wherein

the acquiring unit is configured to acquire a target time slotallocation of the target cell;

the electronic device further includes a comparing unit configured tocompare the actual time slot allocation of the target cell with thetarget time slot allocation; and

the reporting unit is configured to transmit at least the actual timeslot allocation inconsistent with the target time slot allocation aswell as the cell ID and the operator ID of the corresponding target cellto the designated party.

3. The electronic device according to embodiment 1 or 2, wherein

the acquiring unit is configured to acquire, at the specific time, anactual frame start time of the target cell; and

the reporting unit is configured to transmit the actual frame start timeof the target cell as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of thetarget cell to the designated party.

4. The electronic device according to embodiment 2, wherein

the acquiring unit is configured to acquire the actual frame start timeof the target cell, and acquire a reference time as a time reference;

the comparing unit is further configured to calculate a differencebetween the actual frame start time of the target cell and a desiredframe start time based on the reference time; and

the reporting unit is configured to transmit at least the differencehaving an absolute value greater than a predetermined threshold, as wellas the cell ID and the operator ID of the corresponding target cell, tothe designated party.

5. The electronic device according to embodiment 3 or 4, wherein theacquiring unit is configured to acquire the actual time slot allocationand the actual frame start time by monitoring system information and adownlink synchronization signal of the target cell respectively.

6. The electronic device according to any one of embodiments 1 to 5,wherein the reporting unit is capable of reporting by using radioresource control connection request signaling.

7. The electronic device according to any one of embodiments 1 to 6,wherein the acquiring unit is configured to receive a designation of thetarget cell.

8. The electronic device according to any one of embodiments 1 to 7,wherein the electronic device is a dedicated synchronization detectiondevice, which adaptively selects the specific time based on a configuredmaximum detection time interval.

9. The electronic device according to any one of embodiments 1 to 7,wherein the electronic device is a user equipment capable of performingwireless communication which is configured to perform detection within aspecific synchronization interval.

10. The electronic device according to embodiment 9, wherein thereporting unit is further capable of reporting by using radio resourcecontrol signaling other than the radio resource control connectionrequest signaling.

11. An electronic device for a time division duplex wirelesscommunication system, wherein the electronic device includes:

a command unit configured to notify a specific terminal device of atarget cell serving as a target of synchronization detection, as well asa detection period or a maximum detection time interval for thesynchronization detection; and

a receiving unit configured to receive an actual time slot allocation ofthe target cell as well as a cell ID and an operator ID of the targetcell reported by the specific terminal device.

12. The electronic device according to embodiment 11, wherein thecommand unit is further configured to notify the specific terminaldevice of a target time slot allocation of the target cell.

13. The electronic device according to embodiment 11 or 12, wherein thereceiving unit is configured to receive an actual frame start time ofthe target cell as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of the targetcell reported by the specific terminal device.

14. The electronic device according to embodiment 11 or 12, wherein thecommand unit is further configured to notify the specific terminaldevice of a time source serving as a reference; and

the receiving unit is configured to receive a difference between theactual frame start time of the target cell and a desired frame starttime based on a time of the time source, as well as the cell ID and theoperator ID of the target cell reported by the specific terminal device.

15. The electronic device according to any one of embodiments 11 to 14,wherein the receiving unit is configured to perform the reception bydetecting radio resource control connection request signaling ormeasurement result signaling.

16. The electronic device according to any one of embodiments 11 to 15,wherein the electronic device is a base station, and the target cellincludes a cell of the base station, where

the base station further includes:

a determining unit configured to determine, based on content received bythe receiving unit, whether or not the target cell is out of step; and

a control unit configured to perform control to readjust timesynchronization of itself when it is determined that itself is out ofstep, and perform control to send a notification to a designated partywhen it is determined that a cell other than itself is out of step.

17. The electronic device according to embodiment 16, wherein thecommand unit is further configured to measure or estimate a distancefrom a candidate terminal device to a base station of the target cellbased on an advanced amount of an uplink transmission time of thecandidate terminal device, a path loss of the present cell or a signalarrival angle of the candidate terminal device, and to select andactivate a candidate terminal device at a distance from the base stationof the target cell less than or equal to a predetermined distancethreshold as the specific terminal device for performing thesynchronization detection on the target cell.

18 The electronic device according to any one of embodiments 11 to 17,wherein the command unit is further configured to activate the detectionof the specific terminal device in response to detecting thatinterference exceeds a predetermined threshold.

19. A method of detecting synchronization between cells in a timedivision duplex wireless communication system, including:

Acquiring, at a specific time, an actual time slot allocation of atarget cell, as well as a cell ID and an operator ID of the target cell;and

transmitting the actual time slot allocation of the target cell as wellas the cell ID and the operator ID of the target cell to a designatedparty.

20. A method of detecting synchronization between cells in a timedivision duplex wireless communication system, including:

notifying a specific terminal device of a target cell serving as atarget of synchronization detection, as well as a detection period or amaximum detection time interval of the synchronization detection; and

receiving an actual allocation of the target cell as well as a cell IDand an operator ID of the target cell reported by the specific terminaldevice.

1. An electronic device capable of accessing a communication channel ofa time division duplex wireless communication system, comprising: anacquiring unit configured to acquire, at a specific time, an actual timeslot allocation of a target cell, as well as a cell ID and an operatorID of the target cell; and a reporting unit configured to transmit theactual time slot allocation of the target cell as well as the cell IDand the operator ID of the target cell to a designated party.
 2. Theelectronic device according to claim 1, wherein the acquiring unit isconfigured to acquire a target time slot allocation of the target cell;the electronic device further comprises a comparing unit which isconfigured to compare the actual time slot allocation of the target cellwith the target time slot allocation; and the reporting unit isconfigured to transmit at least the actual time slot allocationinconsistent with the target time slot allocation as well as the cell IDand the operator ID of the corresponding target cell to the designatedparty.
 3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein theacquiring unit is configured to acquire an actual frame start time ofthe target cell at the specific time; and the reporting unit isconfigured to transmit the actual frame start time of the target cell aswell as the cell ID and the operator ID of the target cell to thedesignated party.
 4. The electronic device according to claim 2, whereinthe acquiring unit is configured to acquire the actual frame start timeof the target cell, and acquire a reference time as a time reference;the comparing unit is further configured to calculate a differencebetween the actual frame start time of the target cell and a desiredframe start time based on the reference time; and the reporting unit isconfigured to transmit at least the difference having an absolute valuegreater than a predetermined threshold, as well as the cell ID and theoperator ID of the corresponding target cell, to the designated party.5. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the acquiringunit is configured to acquire the actual time slot allocation and theactual frame start time by monitoring system information and a downlinksynchronization signal of the target cell respectively.
 6. Theelectronic device according to claim 1, wherein the reporting unit iscapable of reporting by using radio resource control connection requestsignaling.
 7. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein theacquiring unit is configured to receive a designation of the targetcell.
 8. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein theelectronic device is a dedicated synchronization detection device, whichadaptively selects the specific time based on a configured maximumdetection time interval.
 9. The electronic device according to claim 1,wherein the electronic device is a user equipment capable of performingwireless communication which is configured to perform detection within aspecific synchronization interval.
 10. The electronic device accordingto claim 9, wherein the reporting unit is further capable of reportingby using radio resource control signaling other than the radio resourcecontrol connection request signaling.
 11. An electronic device for atime division duplex wireless communication system, wherein theelectronic device comprises: a command unit configured to notify aspecific terminal device of a target cell serving as a target ofsynchronization detection, as well as a detection period or a maximumdetection time interval for the synchronization detection; and areceiving unit configured to receive an actual time slot allocation ofthe target cell as well as a cell ID and an operator ID of the targetcell reported by the specific terminal device.
 12. The electronic deviceaccording to claim 11, wherein the command unit is further configured tonotify the specific terminal device of a target time slot allocation ofthe target cell.
 13. The electronic device according to claim 11,wherein the receiving unit is configured to receive an actual framestart time of the target cell as well as the cell ID and the operator IDof the target cell reported by the specific terminal device.
 14. Theelectronic device according to claim 11, wherein the command unit isfurther configured to notify the specific terminal device of a timesource serving as a reference; wherein the receiving unit is configuredto receive a difference between the actual frame start time of thetarget cell and a desired frame start time based on a time of the timesource, as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of the target cellreported by the specific terminal device.
 15. The electronic deviceaccording to claim 11, wherein the receiving unit is configured toperform the reception by detecting radio resource control connectionrequest signaling or measurement result signaling.
 16. The electronicdevice according to claim 11, wherein the electronic device is a basestation, and the target cell comprises a cell of the base station,wherein the base station further comprises: a determining unitconfigured to determine, based on content received by the receivingunit, whether or not the target cell is out of step; and a control unitconfigured to perform control to readjust time synchronization of itselfwhen it is determined that itself is out of step, and perform control tosend a notification to a designated party when it is determined that acell other than itself is out of step.
 17. The electronic deviceaccording to claim 16, wherein the command unit is further configured tomeasure or estimate a distance from a candidate terminal device to abase station of the target cell based on an advanced amount of an uplinktransmission time of the candidate terminal device, a path loss of thepresent cell or a signal arrival angle of the candidate terminal device,and to select and activate a candidate terminal device at a distancefrom the base station of the target cell less than or equal to apredetermined distance threshold as the specific terminal device forperforming the synchronization detection on the target cell.
 18. Theelectronic device according to claim 11, wherein the command unit isfurther configured to activate the detection of the specific terminaldevice in response to detecting that interference exceeds apredetermined threshold.
 19. A method of detecting synchronizationbetween cells in a time division duplex wireless communication system,comprising: acquiring, at a specific time, an actual time slotallocation of a target cell, as well as a cell ID and an operator ID ofthe target cell; and transmitting the actual time slot allocation of thetarget cell as well as the cell ID and the operator ID of the targetcell to a designated party.
 20. A method of detecting synchronizationbetween cells in a time division duplex wireless communication system,comprising: notifying a specific terminal device of a target cellserving as a target of synchronization detection, as well as a detectionperiod or a maximum detection time interval of the synchronizationdetection; and receiving an actual allocation of the target cell as wellas a cell ID and an operator ID of the target cell reported by thespecific terminal device.